Recently, understanding mental health has increased in relevance for improving overall health and well-being. Initiatives include the Movement for Global Mental Health and the 2014 international mental health leadership exchange hosted by the UK. The new DSM-5 was released in 2013, raising significant questions about the ‘nature’ of mental health and diagnosis, treatment and management of mental illness. This mental health workshop will reflect these important developments.

Participants will be invited to focus on particular issues in mental health from varied theoretical and methodological perspectives addressing such questions as:

How do psychiatric diagnostic categories, as recently updated in DSM-5, influence everyday relations between social workers, psychiatrists and patients?

What are the shared and distinct concerns psychiatric researchers, social workers and social scientists have, about how mental health is understood?

How can mental health provision be improved over the life-course?

The workshop will involve plenary and breakout sessions involving problem-solving and training in methodological approaches. It will provide opportunities for postgraduate and senior researchers to share research experience and address questions better understood from the perspectives of social sciences, policy research and health sciences by developing research methods and engaging in discussions of contemporary theoretical developments. In so doing it will open up the possibilities for new collaborative engagements by PhD students.